The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-09-22
a THRILLING STORY.
Exciting Page from the Life or a
ProSpectOr.

"a man gets some queer ideas in hi:
head when he's out all alone in the
mountains" said John Sanderson, an
old prospector who has his head
quarters at FL Paso. but who makes
several incurSions into the mining dis
Victs every year.
Half of them believe in ghosts, nine
But of ten in signs, and about all OF
them in luck. My own experience has
changed my views in a good many
particulars, and, for one thing, it has
made me a firm believer in special
proyidences. 1t didn't come about
gradually, but through as marvellous
escape from an awful death as, be-
lieve, ever falls to men.
at happened up in the Mimbres
mountains four years ago this summer.
The Mimbres lie in New Mexico, down
below old Fort Tule Rosa, and they must
be full of gold somewhere, because the
beds of the creeks that find their way
down the sides are so rich in placer
-diggings that you can't pull up a sage
brush around there without seeing
bright specks among the roots. 1 had
r pet theory then that if you followed
the creeks up high enough and looked
elose enough you would find a ire
mendous deposit of gold in decomposed
quartz. thought, you see, that a lit
tie of it had washed off the surface in
the course of time and formed those
placers. What wanted to find was
the mother mine.
81 talked the thing up to Charley
Burke, another prOspector and friend
of mine, until he agreed to put up half
the outfit and join me in the search.
We got couple of burros, the neces-
sary tools. and started early in the
spring. The country about the MINI
'bres is about rs wild and desolate as
any on earth, and it was trip that
nothing but faith and enthusiasm would
prompt man to attempt. It was one
succession Of gorges. gulches and ac-
clivities. all strewn with granite
10 a four-story block. and often we
were obliged to leave the water-course
we were following and make detours
that took days at time.
''The creek we followed was almost
dry and we stopped frequently looking
for placers. We found no very rich
ones, but everywhere there was gold.
Sometimes there would be lots of it in
the bottom of the tin cup after we had
taken drink, and sometimes-here is
a curious thing-it would be floating
on the surface. l will let some one who
is better posted in science than l tell
why gold now and then floats; but 1
only know that little flakes of it do,
and lot of it is lost in sluice-mining
that way. AS long as we found placers
we knew that the main deposit was
ahead; so we pushed along, tired
enough but confident. At last we
came to spot where the sand was barren
for several DAYS journey, and then
we began to prospect the country all
around. To make long story short,
we struck ledge one morning with
outcroppings that crumbled under my
pick and showed quartz all streaked
with yellow threads. Charley I
yelled out, all afire at once, we have
struck itr
''But before we sunk shaft we found
something else that sent our hearts to
our mouths. 1t was an old shaft, back
a little ways, and in claim, properly
staked out, that covered that very
ledge. There was notification &C
cording to law on one of the posts that
Peter Sumner and Joseph Klautzy had
taken possession of the Big Six and
done the legal assessment work. sat
right down collapsed. but Charley went
over to the shaft and came back to tell
me that it didn't cover half the amount
necessary, under the law. to hold the
property for Il year. We measured it,
and, sure enough, it was down only
about half the required distance. So
we took possession of the property,
changed its name to The Treasury
and went to work.
1--WE built ourselves a rough shanty,
rugged up a windlass. and began to
sink. In few days we were into a
formation rich enough to make mans
head swim, and getting better as we
went down. We were both so excited
that we begrudged the time to eat and
Sleep and we neither of US meditated
for an instant giving the claim up to
any body, assessment work or no assess
ment work. What had become of the
two men was a mystery. They had left
no trace except the notifcation-board
and shaft, and it gave me the creeps
now and then to think that they might
be dead. But we were not in a frame
of mind TO let sentiment interfere with
business.
II suppose we had been there for O
couple of weeks when provisions be-
gan to run short We didn't want to
both leave the claim at once. so it was
finally arranged that Charley 60 down
the creek to camp about fifty miles